When Durand-Ruel's previous support of Monet and his peers began to decline, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and Berthe Morisot exhibited their work independently; they did so under the name the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers for which Monet was a leading figure in its formation.
He was inspired by the style and subject matter of his slightly older contemporaries, Pissarro and Édouard Manet.
The group, whose title was chosen to avoid association with any style or movement, were unified in their independence from the Salon and rejection of the prevailing academicism.
Monet gained a reputation as the foremost landscape painter of the group.
At the first exhibition, in 1874, Monet displayed, among others, Impression, Sunrise, The Luncheon and Boulevard des Capucines.
The art critic Louis Leroy wrote a hostile review. Taking particular notice of Impression, Sunrise (1872), a hazy depiction of Le Havre port and stylistic detour, he coined the term "Impressionism".
Conservative critics and the public derided the group, with the term initially being ironic and denoting the painting as unfinished.
More progressive critics praised the depiction of modern life—Louis Edmond Duranty called their style a "revolution in painting".
He later regretted inspiring the name, as he believed that they were a group "whose majority had nothing impressionist".
The total attendance is estimated at 3500. Monet priced Impression: Sunrise at 1000 francs but failed to sell it.
The exhibition was open to anyone prepared to pay 60 francs and gave artists the opportunity to show their work without the interference of a jury.
Another exhibition was held in 1876, again in opposition to the Salon. Monet displayed 18 paintings, including The Beach at Sainte-Adresse which showcased multiple Impressionist characteristics.
For the third exhibition, on 5 April 1877, he selected seven paintings from the dozen he had made of Gare Saint-Lazare in the past three months, the first time he had "synced as many paintings of the same site, carefully coordinating their scenes and temporalities".
The paintings were well received by critics, who especially praised the way he captured the arrival and departures of the trains.
By the fourth exhibition his involvement was by means of negotiation on Caillebotte's part.
His last time exhibiting with the Impressionists was in 1882 - four years before the final Impressionist exhibition.
Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Morisot, Cézanne and Sisley proceeded to experiment with new methods of depicting reality. They rejected the dark, contrasting lighting of romantic and realist paintings, in favour of the pale tones of their peers' paintings such as those by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Boudin.
After developing methods for painting transient effects, Monet would go on to seek more demanding subjects, new patrons and collectors; his paintings produced in the early 1870s left a lasting impact on the movement and his peers—many of whom moved to Argenteuil as a result of admiring his depiction. | Source: © Wikipedia
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